Wall Street Journal Economic Forecast Survey May 2016 – Notable Aspects

The May 2016 Wall Street Journal Economic Forecast Survey was published on May 12, 2016.  The headline is “WSJ Survey:  Economists Divided Over Next Fed Rate Increase.”  As indicated in the article, 70 economists were surveyed, although not every economist answered every question.

I found numerous items to be notable – although I don’t necessarily agree with them – both within the article and in the “Economist Q&A” section.

An excerpt:

The sudden drop-off in expectations of a June move followed a bumpy few weeks for the U.S. economy. In April, the Commerce Department reported output rose in the first quarter at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.5%, the weakest reading in two years. Employers also pulled back in April, adding 160,000 jobs, down from 208,000 in March and 233,000 in February, the Labor Department reported.

As seen in the “Recession Probability” section, the average response as to the odds of another recession starting within the next 12 months was 19.61%; the average response in April’s survey was 19.03%.  The individual estimates, of those who responded, ranged from 1% to 60%.

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The current average forecasts among economists polled include the following:

GDP:

full-year 2016:  1.9%

full-year 2017:  2.2%

full-year 2018:  2.2%

Unemployment Rate:

December 2016: 4.7%

December 2017: 4.6%

December 2018: 4.7%

10-Year Treasury Yield:

December 2016: 2.24%

December 2017: 2.74%

December 2018: 3.20%

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Please Note – The above is excerpted from the EconomicGreenfield.com (published by RevSD, LLC) post of May 12, 2016, titled “The May 2016 Wall Street Journal Economic Forecast Survey”

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RevSD, LLC offers the above commentary for informational purposes only, and does not necessarily agree with the views expressed by these outside parties.

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RevSD, LLC is a management consulting firm and strategic advisory that focuses on the analysis of current and future weak(ening) economic conditions, and offers businesses and other entities advice, strategies, and actionable methods on how to optimally adapt to such challenging, complex conditions.